Hard Mode
by Oito Y
Summary: [SPOILERS!] After two incomplete runs and one complete run, you were almost satisfied with your journey. But something was missing, and you were determined to find out. [May never be continued.]


Long ago, there were two Kingdoms that ruled over the land; the Human Kingdom and the Monster Kingdom. The monsters valued nature and friendship over all else, while the humans valued advancing technology and safety over all else. One day, war broke out between the two races. The conflict lasted nearly a decade before the humans won. They sealed the monsters into Mona Ebott, or the Trapped Mountain. The strongest of the humans was so determined to separate the monsters from the humans that she created a magical force called The Barrier, surrounding the mountain and keeping all from coming out.

Years and generations of both races passed. Centuries, nearly a millennia, even. Seven humans dared to climb the mountain in the later part of the 1900s, and none of them ever returned, falling down the same hole into the abyss.

You were the eighth to fall into the realm called the Underground, a couple decades after the last one. You with your short brown hair, your tan skin, your blue-and-magenta striped turtleneck, your blue capris, your brown leather boots. You had lost all you had before deciding to end it all. So you fell.

You woke up in a bed of golden flowers. You were confused, frightened, and alone. You began to explore the unknown realm and found that it was indeed filled with otherworldly creatures. Anthropomorphic animal people, walking skeletons, ghosts, robots, living vegetables. Through the bright Ruins you walked, the wintery Snowdin, the beautiful Waterfall, the confusing Hotland. You weren't sure whether to kill or spare, so you did both. But you eventually grew tired of your uncertainty. You wanted to go back to the start.

An orange-and-black rectangular hologram appeared in front of you with the word "RESET" blazed on it. Quick as lightning, you hit the "button".

You woke up again in the flowerbed, amazed. How did you have control over time itself? Was it simply the fact that you were determined to go back? How?

So you went through the adventure again, this time letting your dark desires take over. You had an urge to kill, to feel the dust of the monsters on your fingers, so you let yourself do that. The old stick you had to defend yourself was covered in slash marks, counting the monsters you killed. Voices whispered in your head telling you about your sinful choices but encouraging you to keep going. And all the while, the flower kept calling you a name not your own. Who was Chara? Why were they important? Not that it mattered in the end.

You had made some friends in the past timeline, and killing them almost made you sick. You felt guilty for letting your own homicidal urges take over your desire to simply befriend everyone. Once you felt the dust of who was your best friend on your fingers, you simply couldn't do it anymore. You RESET again.

You woke up in the flowerbed for the third time. This run, you decided you would never kill again. You swallowed your destructive tendencies and befriended everybody. This run, you got so far in the journey you didn't quite know what to do next. Despite the forced fight against the last monster, you still spared him.

But then the true evil came in and destroyed him for you. You fought bravely against the true final monster, but in the end, you spared him as well. He told you to "LOAD" your "SAVE" and go back, to truly befriend everybody. So you did, and once you got through that, the last monster had betrayed you. He had taken the SOULs of every monster in the Underground and become a godlike being. In the end, you were so determined to win, you convinced him to stop.

Using the power behind the SOULs of all the monsters and the power of the SOULs of the humans who fell down, you and he broke The Barrier. You freed the monsters from their prison, and you chose to stay with the first monster you ever met.

After a long time of your happy ending, you could not shake a feeling of emptiness, a feeling that something, something was missing. The puzzle was not complete. There were missing entities you needed to save, and not just the true last monster. Other entities, some who never made it into your journey, ones you never met but knew must have been there somewhere. Objects undiscovered, dialogue unspoken, characters unmet or even unused.

So one last time, you hit the button and the world swirled into darkness.

* * *

 **This fic may never be continued due to time issues. Sorry.**


End file.
